As Shellitha Collins stood upon the peak of the podium and fans at Atlantic City’s Boardwalk Hall applauded her effort, none were aware of just how much this year’s NJSIAA 235-pound girls’ state wrestling champion once despised challenging competition.
“I started wrestling in second grade because my brother (fourth-place state finisher Lavitsky Collins) wrestled,” the Ewing High junior recalled. “I was in my follower stages in life and wanted to be like my brother. I lasted until third grade, and I felt like I was horrible. I only wrestled boys, and I just got my butt whupped.
“It was like, ‘I don’t want to compete.’ I didn’t ever stop practicing. I know my stuff now. But back then I gave up because I kept getting beat and I didn’t like it at all. I don’t like being overpowered and I don’t like losing. So I didn’t like it with the boys.”
And yet, something about the sport itself gripped Shelitha and she would continue to wrestle at home with her brothers and attend camps. By the time she returned to the sport, boys still presented the competition but she was more prepared.
Thus, when it came to wrestling girls Collins felt even more powerful and, on March 4 her journey hit its latest high point when she pinned Lakeland’s Caroline Biegel in 2:15 to become the first state wrestling champion in EHS history for either boys or girls. After a standstill first period that produced no points, Shellitha planted Biegel 15 seconds into the second.
“I won the coin flip and took bottom, and I got the reversal on her and swung her on her back,” said Collins, who finished fifth in last year’s states. “After I won, I feel like I looked silly the way I was, like, running in place. But I was really happy. My dad jumped 10 feet into the air. My grandpa was crying in the stands. Lavitsky couldn’t be there, but he was proud of me.”
As was the entire EHS community; knowing it finally had a state champion on the mat.
“I’m honored to be the first,” Collins said a week after making history. “I know my name is going to be up there as the first one to have this accomplishment.”
It wasn’t easy, as Shellitha came a long way from those second-grade whuppins she used to take.
After retiring from competition for four years, she returned to the fray in seventh grade “because I didn’t have anything to do in the winter. I knew I couldn’t play basketball. I’m terribly short and horrible at jumping.”
Wrestling was the next option, though Collins said Lavitsky’s success in the sport was not her inspiration.
“I wasn’t a follower anymore,” she said. “I was gonna do my own thing.”
Due to her non-competitive workouts over the years; Collins had honed her skills to where she was better prepared to face male wrestlers. Upon her return she finished fourth in the middle school Mercer County Tournament, saying “I had a lot of good matches and I had some really bad ones. But I was wrestling all boys, so…”
Collins’ eighth-grade season was canceled due to Covid, and that set her back a bit. She gained weight during the long break and was unable to participate in outside club tournaments because of her size. She eventually cut down during her sophomore year and qualified for states before finishing fifth.
In girls wrestling there are no district tournaments; just regionals. Shelitha finished second in the Southern Region, reaching the finals before “I messed up and got pinned.” The top four wrestlers advanced to Phillipsburg High School, which is where last year’s girls states were held.
Since it was not the gigantic boys venue in Atlantic City, it made the experience less tense.
“I wasn’t that nervous because the Phillipsburg setting is not as grand as Atlantic City,” she said. “It feels like the people aren’t paying attention to you because there’s so much going on around you (with simultaneous matches). I wasn’t in the finals, so I wasn’t the center of the show. All the attention wasn’t on me and I did my best to get fifth place.”
This year the NJSIAA expanded to four girls’ regions, and Collins gained a head of confidence by winning her title and pinning all but one opponent.
“I had one tough match (in the semifinals) against a girl who was really strong,” she said. “The only reason I thought it was a tough match is because I couldn’t pin her. I like pinning. It’s a clean finish. I prefer that. But she fought really well (in a 9-2 decision).”
This year, the girls finals moved to Boardwalk Hall. And if that wasn’t daunting enough, Collins brought unwanted attention to herself by reaching the finals.
“There’s a spotlight on you and everything,” she said. “It was a lot of stress. It was funny, before I even went up to wrestle there was so much attention. It made me nervous. I don’t like being the center of attention or being in the spotlight all the time. I knew everybody in there was watching me. It was like a spider crawling up your spine on your skin.”
Collins managed to flick the spider away once the match started, and everyone saw how good she was. Despite the giant crowd watching her every move, she maintained her focus by just tuning in to the support coming from her family members. When the ref’s hand hit the mat, Shelitha instantly gained new-found celebrity.
“I haven’t stopped hearing about it,” she said. “Everyone comes up and tells me how proud they are of me. And I’m proud of myself for being able to do it.”
She still is not enamored with the sport, noting that it has its ups and downs. But she now embraces it and, armed with a 3.5 grade point average, is hoping to do it in college.
“I don’t know if it’s fun,” Collins said. “Sometimes it’s a lot of pain while you’re wrestling. You feel like you can’t breathe. But I feel it’s a thrill. You know how people go on roller coasters for a thrill? It’s a thrill now for me.”
She’s also thrilled to have become a role model for the growing number of females on the Blue Devils team. Boys assistant coach Sam DeCavalcante does most of the work with the girls. They include freshmen Alex Neuberger and Raymonda Kamara and sophomore Sam Dupee, who qualified for states with a third-place finish at regions. Kamara could not wrestle in regions due to injury.
“But she did well before that,” Collins said of Raymonda. “I love all my girls. I like to practice with the boys, but sometimes they throw the younger girls in with me so I can teach them stuff. A lot of girls that come into wrestling want to do it for fun, they don’t know that much about the sport yet. But they’ll get there.”
Just as Collins has gotten there thanks to hard work and honing her abilities.
“I feel like I’ve grown more with my technique,” she said. “I’m not really a strength wrestler. I am strong but I’m not a muscle woman, I’m not She-Hulk. I know that; and that;s why I use my wits and all the stuff I know about wrestling to help me. You don’t have to be the strongest person to win the match. You just have to be the smarter one.”
Armed with that intelligent, Collins went from getting whupped, to giving out the whuppins’. And making EHS history in the process.
Shellitha Collins.,
